Counting the Ways to Reject You

Chapter Six

It was after the All Star game and after mine and Sharp’s one night crazy never to speak about again night and not just because I didn’t want to admit that I slept with a hockey player. I mean, it was a hot and steamy night and we did stuff I’d never even dreamt of doing.

“Let’s call it a day Corey,” I said, skating up to him.

“Practice tomorrow morning?” he asked, gathering up his water bottle and taking a nice, long drink from it.

I nodded, redoing my long ponytail, making sure that my golden straight hair was tied up tightly. “Eight o’ clock, okay? I want to get Tazer on your ass for a couple of high shelf shots.”

He nodded and we skated off the ice and to the changing room. “I’ll meet you in twenty minutes to review the Jacket’s playing styles.”

I nodded. “Good, you smell.”

A grin played on his lips. “Come on Nat. Tell me how you really feel about me,” he joked.

I placed a hand on my hip and pretended to think. “You’re a pretty damn good goaltender, but you smell after a game and you have a knack to bottle up your feelings when we lose and lock yourself away.”

“Until you beat me with a puck.”

“Right. Because then you take out all of your anger out on me which is even better because then you just shout horrible things about me as your stopping pucks.”

He smiled and pushed the door open to the dressing room to go get changed and I started to the viewing room to get some of the videos set up.

KANER’S POV

I watched Sharpie get changed into his street clothes without even as much as a word. And I was pissed.

Crow stepped in and I went up to him. “Nat outside?”

“Heading towards the viewing room. Probably can catch her if you run,” he said before heading to his stall to change.

I was grateful, I was already stripped down to my shorts and my under armor and ran after the goaltender coach who had broken my friend’s heart.

“Natalie!” I tried to make my voice sound intimidating, but I should have known that to Natalie, no one or nothing was intimidating.

She paused and turned to me. “Kaner,” she raised an eyebrow and continued walking, knowing fully that I would catch up.

I fell into stride with her. “What happened between you and Sharpie?” I asked, jumping straight to the point. “During the All Star game,” I clarified.

We both stopped walking and she turned to me. Something passed in her eyes, but I wasn’t sure what it was. Emotion, I assumed, but I never knew when it came to Natalie. She seemed to be immune to the stuff.

“Nothing,” she answered, starting to walk ahead of me again.

“Natalie, we all know that isn’t true. Sharp won’t even talk to anyone. He seems to be in shock so whatever you did, you really screwed with his mind this time. God, you’re such a tease!” I didn’t mean to say that last part out loud, but it just slipped out.

She turned on me so quickly and was in my face, I was startled. Her brown eyes were ablaze as she spoke every word to me. “Listen here Patrick Kane,” she spat at me. She never called me Patrick Kane. It was always Kaner. “You have no right to chase me down and call me a tease. What about all of those girls you brag about, huh? All those blonde puck bunnies Tazer complains about at practice? What about you Kaner? When was the last time you’ve held a steady relationship? When was the last time you weren’t a tease to any girl?”

I was taken back by her outburst that I couldn’t say anything. Natalie was not the one to shout and make a scene like she just did. Natalie was always a little more quiet and plotting when she was angry.

She turned on her heel and instead of turning left to the viewing room, she walked out of the door and out to her car.

My feet followed her to the door and from there I watched her reach her car and her fist slam on the hood of her poor car. I was about to turn away when I saw something I never thought I would see. Her shoulders shook, but it didn’t look like anger.

It looked like she was crying.

I carried myself back to the dressing room, where some of the guys still lingered. Corey was dressed and about to leave. “You catch her?” he asked, grabbing his bag.

“Um yeah,” I said slowly, shaking my head to free the thought of Natalie Whitt crying.

“What’s up with you?” Seabs joked. “Captain Suicide whack you with a puck?”

“I think I made her cry,” I said, looking right at Sharp, just for a reaction.

At first, he didn’t react at all. He kept his head down, swishing the liquid in his water bottle around.

Seabs looked shocked. “What? You’re kidding, right?”

I shook my head. “I uh confronted her about Sharp. . .” I trailed off and turned to my buddy. He reacted then, looking surprised and angry. At who, I wasn’t quite sure.

“And?” Tazer prodded.

“I might have accidently called her a tease.”

I looked at Sharp, but Crow blocked my view and he did not look happy. They may have only been friends for a year or so, but Natalie was drawn to her goaltenders.

“You made her cry?” he said, his voice darker than usual. “You don’t know what happened Kaner.”

“I didn’t mean to call her a tease. It just kind of slipped out.”

“Did she at least bitch you out for being a tease?” Crow asked.

I nodded. “Yeah actually.”

He nodded. “Good,” he said, took a glance at Sharpie and walked out of the changing room, probably to chase after Natalie.

I looked at Sharpie and he looked pained. “What happened Sharpie?” I asked and the remaining players, Tazer, Seabs, Kopy, Hossa, and the new player Michael Frolik watched Sharpie, waiting for a response.

“We. . .” he trailed off, thinking about to what to say next. He shook his head and waved us off.

“Um, what’s going on?” Frolik asked, looking lost and confused.

“Long story short,” Tazer started. “Sharpie is madly in love with Natalie, our goaltender coach and Nat has been rejecting him since she came here and it seems that things changed over the All Star weekend. Isn’t that right Sharpie?”

“Things might have ended a little more positively than I expected,” he jumped around the question.

“But of course all good things have to come to and end,” Hoss said, picking up his bag and exiting, leaving everyone to their thoughts.

And all I could think about was how I could have probably worded my rant better to Natalie. . .

NATALIE’S POV

I turned away from Patrick Kane so fast that my vision blurred for a second but as I walked towards the exit, I realized that my vision was not clearing up. All I could think was that he called me a tease. What did he know? He was much more of a tease than I ever I was. All those girls.

I slammed the door open and stomped out into the snow of February and more or less stomped to my car.

I reached my small, black car and paused for a second. I knew I was a tease to Patrick Sharp. Maybe I’ve always wanted to get close to the Blackhawk star, but I couldn’t risk being hurt again. No love was worth the rejection and the loneliness that came afterwards.

Next thing I knew, I slammed my fist onto the hood of my car and then the tears slid down my cheeks and I pulled open my door and drove home before the blizzard came into effect.